updated 03:25 pm EST, Thu December 16, 2010

Suspect allegedly revealed Apple secrets

Apple secrets are playing an essential role in an FBI sweep directed at insider trading, notes Business Insider. Four people have been arrested in the case, while a fifth has already plead guilty and is a cooperating witness. One of the newly arrested people -- Walter Shimoon, Flextronics' VP of business development -- was caught sharing information about the iPad and the iPhone 4 back in 2009, when both were highly safeguarded.

"They have a code name for something new," Shimoon reportedly said about the iPad. "It's, it's totally...it's a new category altogether. And, uh, I speculate, it doesn't have a camera in it, what I figured out. So, I speculated that it's probably a reader...Something like that." The executive also indicates that the tablet used the codename "K48," and that even using that reference outside of the iPad team could get a person fired.

Regarding the iPhone 4, Shimoon explained that the then-unnamed device would be "coming out early next year," and "have two cameras." He also told the witness that Flextronics was involved in work on one of the cameras, and that modules would probably start production in March. "It'll be a neat phone 'cause it's gonna have five megapixel auto-focus camera and it will have VGA forward-facing video," he elaborated.

Critically, Shimoon is said to have signed a non-disclosure agreement banning either of the leaks. The witness he spoke with is only identified by the FBI as "CW-2," a person "who had substantial experience evaluating public companies in the semiconductor and technology industries, including their financial condition."